Walt Rubel: PED uses strong-arm tactics against local school board

One of Hanna Skandera's first actions as education secretary designate four years ago was to wrongly accuse the Las Cruces school district of theft.

"There's no doubt in my mind that we have some folks who have not represented their data accurately," Skandera told then-Sun-News reporter Milan Simonich following a Public Education Department audit of special education funding. And she made it clear that the Las Cruces School District was the main suspect.

About $18 million in questionable spending triggered the state audits, and the Las Cruces district accounted for half that total, Skandera said. LCPS was one of nine districts selected for a second, more thorough audit.

LCPD Superintendent Stan Rounds blamed the problem on lack of a needed computer patch, and said the district had actually been under-reporting its special education expenses. Subsequent audits confirmed that.

The state had threatened to withhold funding and take action against Rounds and other members of the district if their very public accusations were confirmed. They were not. And, if there was any apology when those public accusations proved to be baseless, it was not offered in public.

Four years later, the heavy hand of state government as wielded by Skandera is again threatening the local school district.

A dispute over how to count teacher absences in a new evaluation system was resolved last week when Skandera threatened to dismantle the school board if she didn't get her way.

So much for local control of schools and deference to the will of the voters, who recently decided to make changes to the local board, in part because they were unhappy with increased high-stakes testing and other mandates from the state.

In a memo to the school board, Skandera reminded them that the powers and duties of the local board could be suspended by the state if the district "has failed to meet requirements of law or department rules or standards."

"While this is surely an extreme and undesirable outcome, it may be a potential consequence should the Las Cruces School Board continue to act outside its authority and direct the superintendent to violate the law," the memo read, taking a lesson from the Vito Corleone school of conflict resolution.

"We are pleased with the outcome, recognizing the importance of working together toward a solution," PED spokesperson Ellen Hur said after the board backed down. Right. The PED and the school board "worked together" in the same way that a lion and an antelope work together to ensure that the lion remains well fed.

The problem for Skandera is that she has been completely unable to achieve buy-in from teachers, students and parents throughout the state for the reforms being imposed from Santa Fe by Gov. Susana Martinez. That was evident last month when hundreds of students in Las Cruces, and thousands throughout the state, walked out in protest of the first year of the new PARCC testing.

They haven't been able to win support for their reforms on the merits, so they have had to implement them by force and intimidation.

Board President Maria Flores said Skandera called her Tuesday and "explained that the attendance portion of the evaluation has a minimal impact on a teacher's overall ranking. And it's clear that we're forced to back away from this," she said.

In other words, the impact of the attendance requirement isn't really all that important. But unless the school board bends to the PED's will on the issue, the state will take over control of the district.

So nice that we can all work together.

Walter Rubel is editorial page editor of the Sun-News. He can be reached at wrubel@lcsun-news.com or follow @WalterRubel on Twitter.